1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to lawn edging devices and in particular to a lawn edging device having an first upwardly facing surface for conveniently trimming grass in a region adjacent the edging device and a second upwardly facing surface disposed on a barrier extending above the surface of the ground for separating one area of a lawn from another.
2. Background of the Invention
Many lawn edging devices have been proposed previously for stopping the growth of grass and weeds at locations adjoining a sidewalk, building, flower bed, etc thereby separating the grass or weeds. Some of these previously proposed edging devices are very simple and serve merely to cover an area of ground and shield the area thereby preventing growth and providing a spacing.
Thus garden edging structures have long been used to confine soil within garden plots having plants, flowers and other forms of vegetation of plant life growing therein. Essentially such garden edging structures serve to identify garden plots and to separate the same from adjacent grass, vegetation and soil. Further, when such garden edging structures confine and maintain soil within the garden plot they prevent the confined soil from washing away.
Generally speaking many of these devices included some form of barrier made up of one or more edging units, each of which was a longitudinal member of non-frangible, preferably resilient, elastometric material such as molded rubber, plastic, or the like. Many were suitably reinforced with, for example, an inner core structure. Some edging devices were formed of metal, for example metal bands. Each edging unit could be provided with interlocking engagement means for coupling adjacent units to each other. Additionally, penetrating fastening elements where provided for pinning individual barrier units in a simple relationship on a ground surface in a desired configuration or position.
Many garden plots are surrounded by grass. A problem encountered with conventional garden edging structures is that of cutting grass extended directly adjacent the boundary structure surrounding such a garden plot or any other area bordered by grass. Because of the presence of the garden edging structure, one can not properly position a lawnmower to pass over the grass extending adjacent the garden plot boundary. Thus this grass is left uncut many times leaving a less than neat appearance. To properly cut this grass one would have to use a small hand cutter or, if available, a powered fling type cutter. Many people do not have access to such a fling type cutter and cutting with small scissor type cutters is laborious and time consuming.
Therefore some devices in the prior art had a horizontal portion disposed flat on the ground or near to the ground to provide a track for the wheel or wheels of a lawnmower. This permitted the cutting portion of the lawnmower to pass over the edge of the grass and to cut the grass at this edge. However many devices which had such a track failed to provide a substantial barrier between areas of a garden by providing a portion extending above the ground portion for confining materials on one side of the edging device. This confinement is very important when one type of soil is on one side and a different kind is on another side or where there are rocks or pebbles on one side which should be prevented from going to the other side. Additionally, such a barrier may be used to confine wood chips, raised mulch etc.
It is known in the prior art to provide garden edging devices in which units of the devices provide both a track for a lawnmower wheel as well as a substantial upwardly extending portion to separate two areas of ground. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,349 issued to Valdez, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,079 issued to Trageser. However the units of both the garden edging device of Valdez and that of Trageser are formed of a plurality of subunits which must be combined to form a single unit of the edging device. The units formed by this combination may then be combined with each other to form the configuration required to border an area of a garden. This increases the labor and time required for installation of the edging devices of Valdez and Trageser
The following are U.S. Patents which provide a track and somewhat raised separating or barrier portion: U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,421 issued to Bomba, U.S. Pat. No. 1,916,494 issued to Schrickel and U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,128 issued to Tabone.